[wvenable]

> when did denouncing white supremacy become something controversial?

I'm old and never in my life have I ever been asked to denounce white supremacy. If someone asked me to denounce it, I'd be insulted that they asked. There's some serious implications behind asking someone that question that I hope would never apply to me.

[ryandrake]

I don’t understand how white supremacy even comes up as a topic at a company that makes business collaboration software. Maybe I’m lucky but I’ve been in the industry for over 20 years, and it’s never come up as a topic of work discussion. Vi vs emacs? Yup. Debugging techniques? Sure. Linux vs Windows? Many times. White supremacy??? I can’t think of a single moment where that would have been on-topic for any tech job I’ve ever done. What on Earth kind of software are you all working on?

[bellyfullofbac]

It probably came up because of the "funny" internal names they were giving to customers, some of them being in Asia and Africa. While some may view that as harmless fun, others might see it as mocking/insulting. Maybe it's a valid question whether the names came from wanting to feel superior.

If my wife told me the neighbors got a BMW, I could reply that "Huh, their bank is going to lose all their money", mocking them to make myself feel better after seeing that I'm not that well-off to be able to buy such a car. IMO it would be an attempt by me to gain some superiority...

[luxuryballs]

I would be shocked if anyone was being racist or thinking themselves superior by making a list of funny sounding names that made them laugh. It’s just a coincidence that the funny names would possibly be a specific race. This seems obvious given the fact that the names were chosen for being funny not because they were names belonging to specific races. Any name that didn’t sound funny yet was a person of another race didn’t likely make it to the list… unless they specifically had a list of “non-white people using white sounding names”, etc.

[Poiesis]

I think people's defensiveness can get in the way of empathy.

I would be somewhat dismayed if someone asked me to denounce white supremacy, because I would hope that it would be obvious that I abhor white supremacy.

I don't think I'd be insulted, though--and certainly not to the level of refusing to do any denouncing. Of course it's wrong! Hope to live in a world where it goes without saying. Until then, happy to repeat as often as anyone cares to hear it.

[_y5hn]

Some people will never be happy, but will happily tear everyone down. They will never mature to grow out of resentment and forgive.

It's way harder though as long as injustice is perpetuated.

So it's nuanced.

[luxuryballs]

and if someone is being defensive it’s extremely likely that they were approached or engaged with an equal lack of empathy, the obvious one being starting out with any assumption based on their skin color, it then risks becoming a Kafka trap, which is when you claim someone denying something is evidence of it actually being true